Muses of Time
by Matthew-Bellamy-Of-Gallifrey
Summary: After the TARDIS lands in early '90s Teignmouth after tracking down a half-timelord's DNA, the Doctor and Martha run after a scream to find an injured Dom Howard lying beat up on the floor. Little do they know exactly what a big mess they've actually landed in. -One of my first Muse fics, I think my first, ever... originally on my Wattpad account so don't say I copied myself -.-
1. Chapter 1

"Where to now?" The Doctor asked, that maniac light in his bright blue eyes.

I, Martha Jones, was a time traveler with the Doctor, an alien Timelord from a planet called Gallifrey, the last of his kind. His time machine, from the outside, was a blue London police box from the 1960s, but on the inside, it was huge. Shaped like a teardrop, copper walls studded with lights rose around us, leaning into a center column, light brown with glowing blue tubes within. When the TARDIS (standing for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) was driving, the tubes would go up and down, and the control panel was used to drive the device. As for now, the TARDIS was parked in an alley somewhere in London, near the hospital I used to work at before I met the Doctor.

As for now though... where did I want to go?

"I dunno... Anywhere!" I say, grinning back at him.

Suddenly the light in his eyes grew into an excited wildfire. "Oh, I know something you'll enjoy, alright."

He reached to pull the lever that would start the TARDIS, but the thing took off on its own.

Quickly, we grabbed onto the console. TARDIS rides could be very rough indeed, being tossed and turned in every way through time and space, but this was different. It was like we were shooting directly upwards; we were being thrown to the floor. I noticed the Doctor manage to turn on the monitor, which would show us where we were going. He looked up at it, then emitted a sharp, "What?"

I made my way over to him. The readings were impossible to read- they were in Gallifreyian, after all- but he seemed confused. That was never good; his IQ was far superior to any human's. "What is it?"

"It's like the TARDIS is taking us somewhere..." he said, still staring up at the screen, gears in his head turning at full speed. "That's just... no. She never does that. It's never this urgent. She'll mess us up, try to lead us her direction, but she never just takes off..."

If times had been better, I would have rolled my eyes at the Doctor for calling the TARDIS a "she." But now wasn't exactly the time for that. "What... Where is it taking us?"

He looked up at the screen, reading it again. "It's locked onto someone's DNA..." then his eyes widened. "No..."

If I wasn't worried before, I certainly was now. "What is it?"

"That DNA... It's the DNA of-"

He was interrupted by an abrupt landing. The pressure from above was gone, and we fell to the ground. He stood up, still looking at the readings.

"Doctor," I asked, serious. "What type of DNA is it?"

He gave the screen one last look. "It's like... a hybrid. It's like... half human, half Timelord."

My eyes widened. The Doctor's planet, Gallifrey, had long been destroyed by the Daleks, a race of robot hybrids with feelings only of hatred, bloodlust, and powerthirst. A hybrid Timelord meant trouble for sure; the Doctor wasn't exactly popular among the survivors, who had been trapped in a rift in time (which did count as dying, since they didn't really exist.)

I opened the doors and walked outside. It looked like we were in England, wherever we were. The sky was cloudy, the ground was wet, and the air had that metallic smell it always does after it rains.

That was when we heard the scream.

Before you could say "Pwoper," the Doctor and I were out of the TARDIS, the doors closed and locked, and running towards the sound. We were always running, but usually it was from something, not to it. Whatever the case, we ran. I had a feeling whoever was in trouble, it was just normal city crime, not extraterrestrial; the area we had landed in wasn't exactly the best, after all.

A minute or so later we arrived at the scene. On the ground lay a teenage boy, tall and skinny, with longish blond hair. He was beaten, cut and bruised, and looked as if he were in immense pain. He looked up at me, his silver eyes saying, "Kill me now, make it end." But I wasn't about to let that happen.

"Are you okay?" I asked, kneeling down to get a closer look at him.

"Well, he's obviously not okay," the Doctor quipped sarcastically.

"Oh, shush," I said, scanning him for major injuries. It didn't look like he had any bones broken, but he was losing a lot of blood, and his shoulder looked dislocated. Plus, with open wounds and such, lying on the dirty, wet ground was probably not the best option for him; he was wearing a jacket, but the water would probably soak through anyways.

"Is it okay if I try to help you?" I asked, ignoring the bzzzt bzzzzzzzzt of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver behind me as he scanned the area for signs of alien life. He nodded, but barely, and when he did, he gasped, gulping down tears. The gasp made him cough, spraying blood all over the soggy ground.

I placed my hands around his shoulder, remembering what they had taught me in medical school about relocating shoulders. I looked at him again and said, "This is going to hurt a bit, okay?"

When he nodded, I closed my eyes and pushed, as hard as I could, until I felt the bone slide back into its natural position. I heard the boy gasp in pain, and try to gulp down tears again, but this time they came, flowing like a river, mixing with the blood from a scratch on his cheek. In the background I could hear the Doctor muttering worriedly, but I tried to ignore it for the time being.

"Is there someone I can call to take you home?" I asked him, helping him sit up. He tried to talk, but he had gone through a lot of shock, and was in a lot of pain, and all he could manage was slight, pained nod.

"Can you give me their number, or does your mouth hurt too much?"

He shook his head. As he did so, a trickle of blood ran down from the corner of his mouth, a delicate reminder of whatever he had been through.

"Can you give me anything? Your name, your address?"

He nodded shyly. Obviously he didn't want to give away his name. He opened his mouth to speak, but all he could manage was to cough blood into my face. I wiped it off; I had seen worse. He gasped for breath again, trying to communicate.

"D-D-Dom," he spluttered. He grabbed onto my shoulders for support. "D-Dom -Oward."

The name rang a bell in my memory, but I couldn't place my finger quite on it. "Dom Howard?"

He nodded, then passed out into my arms.

"Martha," the Doctor said, walking over to me, "we need to get out of here."

"But we can't just leave him like this! He's in no position to fight!"

"Martha, something is here. Something is looking for Timelord DNA, and if it finds me..."

The Doctor's words seemed to fade away as I realized where I had heard the name Dom Howard.

"Doctor, have you heard of a band called Muse?"

"Martha, we really don't have time to ponder music ri-"

"This kid is gonna be their drummer."

He paused for a second, then turned around and walked over to him, slowly, as if trying not to wake him. He knelt down by the boy's beat up figure, and lightly scanned him with the sonic. When he found what he was looking for, he stood up, put the sonic away, and said, "Right then. So he is. But he's never seen Matt Bellamy in his life."

I heard footsteps, running to us from behind. I turned around to see a slightly younger boy running up. This one was skinnier, with black hair and silver-blue eyes. Something clicked in my brain...

If the boy I was holding was Dominic Howard...

"Oh my God," he gasped when he saw Dom collapsed in my arms. "I- will he be all right?"

"With some rest, food and water, probably," I told him, nodding. "He doesn't have any major injuries, though some of his teeth appear to have been knocked out."

"Holy- woah..."

His shining eyes filled with guilt. "I should have gotten here faster."

"Oh, don't think like that," I told him, shifting my weight. "What's your name?"

For a second his eyes passed to the Doctor, who was sonicing him from a short distance away. Then they passed to Dom, who lay unconscious in my lap. After deciding we were good people, he looked back to me and said, "Matt. Matt Bellamy."

The Doctor looked up. "Wha?"

He looked over at the Doctor, confused. "I'm Matt Bellamy. Is that a pwoblem?"

"No, no, no, not at all," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "It's just-"

Suddenly the sky darkened- not rainy dark, but like, nighttime dark. A sort of scanning beam emitted from the sky on Dom and I. I shielded my eyes, and the beam turned off. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Doctor grab Matt and hide him between some crates.

When the ship decided we weren't what it was looking for, it passed. Matt emerged from the crates, confused. "What on Earth was that?"

The Doctor looked at him, worried, and said, "Space police. They're looking for either two people; me, or you."

Matt's eyes widened. "What have I-? How did they-"

"I don't know. I wish I did, but I don't." Then, quieter, "I don't like that, not knowing. Rather annoying. Anyways..." He fell back on topic, wandering around in circles. "Don't worry about me. Go home, hang out with your family, don't tell them you're being pursued by alien police. Tends to raise awkward questions." When Matt looked at him like he was insane, he said, "I was like you once. But that was nine hundred years ago."

And, with that, Matt seemed to decide he was both incredibly mad and incredibly smart at the same time. Still staring at us, he started walking backwards, then turned around and ran home.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, as it turns out, was a Wednesday. The Doctor somehow managed to get a job at Matt's school as a substitute teacher, which could be bad news. I had seen him teach once, and that was as a human to hide from some aliens. Looooong story, but in the end, I was glad he didn't stay a teacher or a human.

But now the Doctor was teaching as a Timelord. _This should be interesting_, I thought, sitting at the back of the classroom as his "helper."

I watched silently as the room filled with students. It was obvious who the popular kids were, and the bullies, as all the other kids tended to avoid them. I noticed when Matt walked in, most of the other kids tended to stare at him. He recognized me and the Doctor almost immediately, and for a second he looked like he wanted to run, then calmed down slightly and took a seat near the back of the left side of the classroom.

As soon as the classroom was full, the Doctor stood up, put his hands together, and said, "Physics! Physicsphysicsphysicsphysics physics. I like physics. Fascinating science. Now, where were we yesterday?"

Some of the kids snickered at his energy. Someone mumbled, "Page 146," boredly.

The Doctor, however, seemed indifferent to the child's boredom. "Page 146 then! Let's see what you were learning about there..." He grabbed a textbook off the teacher's desk and flipped it open to what I presumed was page 146. "Aah! Momentum! Should be fascinating." I noticed Matt roll his eyes and start to take what from a distance could pass as notes, but looked more poetic than normal physics notes.

Time passed, and the Doctor lectured the kids on the physics of momentum. Some of them looked interested, but most just looked bored. I looked back over at Matt to see him writing what looked like music, having given up looking like he was actually taking notes (though I guess, in a sense, he was writing down "notes.") As the Doctor passed by Matt's seat, he glanced at the paper, seeing the music written there.

"And what do we have here?"

Matt looked up at him, and quickly put away the sheet of paper. "I-it's nothing, sir. I'm sorry. I'll get back to notes now."

"Good, good..."

The Doctor trailed away, then whispered in Matt's ear, "See me during lunch."

At this, a mixture of fear and anger flared in his eyes. Obviously, he thought he was in trouble. "Yes, sir."

"Now, back to our previous discussion..."

The rest of the class was rather uneventful, though I did catch Matt drawing from time to time. The other members of the class doodled as well, though, but none of their drawings were like Matt's. While they drew flowers and hearts, or guitars and band logos, Matt sketched aliens and spaceships, supernovas and black holes. While the other kids dreamed of being famous, by the looks of his paper, he dreamed of seeing the rest of the universe, planets of silver and cities of song, beings of lava and ice, and plants made of steel.

I remembered, for a second, how when I first met the Doctor, I was rather like him. I wanted to be a doctor, to help people, but I wanted to see something beyond Earth. I wanted to be able to reach up and touch the other side of space and time. As a Muser, Matt had always seemed so distant, so far away, but looking at him as a child, maybe we weren't so different at all.

The bell rang, and I noticed Matt was the first one out of the room. The rest of the class followed, taking their time to pack their backpacks, not wanting to go to their next class.

The Doctor walked over to me and mumbled in my ear, "He seems like a good kid, I don't know why everyone thinks he's weird..."

"Welcome to high school," I told him, rolling my eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

That day at lunch, I grudgingly returned to room 104, where Mr. Smith had been teaching science class.

It was pointless, explaining my urge to write music to teachers. People just didn't get it. It wasn't like I wanted to write music, it was that I had to. I would get these ideas in my head I just _had_ to write down, like a poet and their poetry, or a novelist and their novels. You don't think about writing the song, you think about how you feel and let the tune flow through you like a river.

When I arrived at the room, I noticed him and his "assistant," whom he had introduced as Ms. Jones, muttering quietly to each other. They were the same people I had seen yesterday, when I had heard the screaming. The girl was Martha with her strange clothes, and the man was the Doctor, with his blue buzzing pen-thing, who had shoved me into a crate and told me aliens were after me.

My name meant something to them. I was someone they had heard of, and, by the looks of it, possibly looked up to or admired. I didn't know how I felt about that. Maybe they were mad, but the school would never hire a madman and his helper as substitute teachers.

After a few minutes of speculation, the Mr. Smith noticed me hovering shyly outside the door.

"Ah, Matt!" he called gleefully. "Come on in."

I walked over to my seat and sat down. Whatever he wanted, I was ready for it.

"Matt, about the aliens yesterday..."

Okay, I take it back. This I was not ready for, not in the least. But I could handle it.

"Have you ever felt... different from your peers?"

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Oh, don't address me as 'sir,' it's silly." He made a face of exasperation, then pulled over a chair and sat down. He mumbled something that sounded a lot like, "Humans," then continued questioning me. "What about you do you think is different?"

Billions of ideas popped into my head, but I couldn't tell him. Whoever this "Doctor" was, he couldn't know. Instead I stated the obvious: "They all seem like idiots."

For a second I was worried he would punish me, but he simply nodded. "Yeah, they kinda do..."

I grinned. Whoever this "Mr. Smith" was, he was obviously cool.

"But... is there anything else? Have you ever felt... out of place?"

I nodded. "All the time."

"Why? What makes you think you don't belong?"

I closed my eyes. Ten years ago, when I was barely five, my father had told me the stories of his home world. How when he was the age I was then, he had watched his entire world go up in flames. Every dream, every friend, every relative, everything he had ever known, just... gone.

At first I didn't believe him, but then he showed me inside his time machine. From the outside, it looked like a normal car, a beat-up car we never drove. But on the inside sat a spaceship, a cavernous control room. It was bigger on the inside.

My parents were divorced now, though. They had never really said why, but one day a few months before, I noticed the car had moved. Maybe my father had finally given up... Timelords have twelve lives, and never age. Maybe he had realized that while she could spend the rest of her time with him, he could never spend the rest of his with her...

"Matt?"

I looked up, remembering the Mr. Smith and Ms. Jones. I realized I had fallen into a daze. "Sowwy. Why I don't belong?"

He nodded. Now he looked even more interested in me than before.

"It's just..." I fumbled. "I never feel at home. I mean, I just moved here, but it's more than that. It's like I'm... nothing feels wight."

That part, at least, was true. I was constantly on the edge, and I felt out of place, the odd one out. But it was more than being a "nerd" and a "weirdo," more than I could ever tell them. They could never know how I had two hearts, how sometimes I had freaky moments where my intelligence would spark to superhuman standards. How I had almost unlimited strength, agility, and energy compared to them. But they also couldn't know how much I longed to see the rest of the universe, to reach up and touch the stars. It was beyond them. They would never understand.

"One more thing-"

"Actually, Doctor, may I interrupt?" Ms. Jones asked, walking over. Mr. Smith looked at her and stepped back.

"Matt... that music you were writing in class... does it hold any sort of meaning to you?"

I stared at her, trying to see where she was going with this. Mr. Smith frowned at her. "Martha, no."

"I'm just curious!" she exclaimed.

Trying to resist letting out a frustrated sigh, I answered as calmly as I could. "It's... just... a vent... like a journal, I guess... a journal without words..."

She nodded. "Ah."

Mr. Smith stepped forward again, cutting Ms. Jones off from anything else she might say. "Back to our original discussion-" (Ms. Jones looked slightly exasperated) "Does the name 'Gallifrey' hold any meaning to you?"

_Gallifrey. _The word echoed in my mind. The planet with orange skies, where my father was from. The planet that had died in the Time War, causing my father to flee to Earth.

I looked up at him, the word still bouncing through my confused mind. "What are you-"

"I didn't intend to come here, Matt," he said, taking out his pen thing. "My time machine took me here. She never does that. Can you guess why?"

My eyes widened. "No. Stop it."

"My time machine locked onto your DNA. I don't know why, it just did. When we heard that boy scream-"

"His name was Dom," Ms. Jones interrupted.

"Dom, right. When we heard him scream, we ran to it. Martha, over here, relocated his shoulder and tried to calm him while I scanned the area for signs of inhuman life. Do you know what I found?"

I looked away from him, starting to panic. Who was he? More importantly, _what_ was he? "Stop it!"

"I found signs of two beings. One was Sotaran, the police who scanned the area. But the other species was Dalek."

I closed my eyes. The Daleks, who had destroyed Gallifrey. "No..."

"And I'm very sorry, Matt, but I while I don't think the police were any harm, I have reasons to believe the Daleks that are after you."

My brain was whirling. This man... he was impossible. He could look at me, and he knew everything. He was more than a teacher. He was a brilliant man. Too brilliant.

He was _like_ me.

"I'm sorry, Matt. I'm so, so sorry."

"We can help you," Ms. Jones added, looking at me sadly.

"No," I said, backing away. Whoever they were, my life was mine, and only mine. Who were they to burst in and ruin everything? "Go away. Just... just leave me alone!"

And with that, I jumped up from my seat and ran, not afraid to pour on some Timelord-like speed, from the room.


	4. Chapter 4

-Martha-

"Wow, Doctor. You scared him out of his mind."

He stared at the doorway, which Matt had just left. "I didn't mean to," he said, half-regrettedly, half whinily.

"Oh, shush," I said, looking out the window.

The yard was full, full of kids. Somewhere out there, I had a feeling Matt was hiding from everyone else, scared of us and the Daleks and all the other kids, who bullied him for being smart.

"You're just upset because I scared the lead singer of your favorite band," the Doctor teased.

I didn't move from the window. "Yeah," I said evenly. "Yeah, I am."

I hurt.

I'd try to list all the places I hurt, but it would pretty much be every spot in my body. I had bit off the tip of my tongue, been cut and scraped pretty much everywhere, and where I wasn't been bleeding there were bruises. It was better, though, than when my arm had been dislocated, but it was still far more pain than I had ever experienced in my life prior to the event.

Usually I was surrounded by friends, but today I sat alone. I just wanted some time to breathe, after getting beat up by aliens. They'd worn dark blue suits, and had huge heads that looked like that of a rhinoceros. They'd asked me if I'd seen something called a "dalek," or a "time lord," and shone a strange blue light on me. When I'd ran, they'd found me, and tried to take me somewhere. When I escaped again, they'd decided I was dangerous and beat me up.

I noticed a skinny, black-haired boy running, as quickly as he could, out of the building. Normally I would have dismissed it as bullying, but something about the look of terror in his silver-blue eyes sent shivers down my spine. He looked like he had just seen the apocalypse.

I remembered the aliens. Who knew their power; maybe he had.

Three days later and it was a Saturday.

A very boring Saturday, as it turned out, until Matt found us.

We were wasting time in the TARDIS. The Doctor was fooling around with the monitor, trying to see if there were any dalek ships in orbit, or if the traces of dalek he had found were, as a matter of fact, old. So far, by the sound of it, the results were negative.

"I just don't get it!" he kept saying, staring at the screen. "If I could just find them, it would all make sense! The Daleks have come to kill the child that could easily start another race of Timelords, even if less powerful, and the Sontarans are here to stop them! But no, all I see are Sontaran ships! And those traces weren't just small, there was tons of it! The Daleks are here, I can almost smell it! But where are they?"

"Would shielding protect them from the TARDIS's scanners?" I asked, trying to help.

"No, the TARDIS is smarter than that. Besides, shielding only protects from attacks, not scans..."

He soniced the screen, and his expression changed. "Oooh, yes, see, the TARDIS is picking up traces of daleks as well. Everywhere, all over the town, date marks ranging from- Martha, did you ever pick up a date?"

"We started working at the school on September 23, 1992," I said, getting up and walking over. "So today would be the 28th."

"Well then, there's signs of Dalek life as recent as ten minutes ago," he said, moving so I could see the scanner. Dominating the screen were a bunch of red blobs. "See? The more vivid the red, the more recent it is, and the more of it there is. I'm getting hotspots all over the town, particularly at the school, the alleyways, and a few select houses, though whose I can't tell. It just doesn't make sense though, because I can't find any dalek ships, on the ground or above it." He pressed a button, and suddenly the screen went blank. "All those daleks and that's how many of their ships I'm picking up. I just don't get it. I have a feeling it's hanging right in front of me, and yet I still don't get it."

At this there was a knock at the door of the TARDIS.

Let me explain something to you: While the Doctor and I had blended in with early 90s life pretty well, as we usually do with the places we visit, there are never knocks at the TARDIS. And when there are, something bad is probably about to happen. So, at that moment, both of us froze, and the room fell silent except for the soft alien hum of the TARDIS interior.

Whoever- or, really, whatever- was outside knocked again. It wasn't a hard, let-me-in-this-is-the-government knock, or a scared, help-me-I'm-being-chased-by-daleks knock, but more of a soft, I-don't-really-know-what-I'm-doing knock. It was the kind of knock you'd make on a neighbor's door when you're eight years old and selling Girl Scout cookies. To a neighbor who just moved in and you don't know well.

"Do you think it's the Sontarans?" I asked, when whoever's outside calls, "Hello?"

I relaxed. It sounded exactly like Matt. But the Doctor stayed stiff. "Maybe not the Sontarans, but someone with mimicking abilities..."

He walked over to the door normally, trying not to startle him (or whoever may have been mimicking him.) He put his hand lightly on the door handle, and opened it slowly to reveal...

...just as I suspected, Matt. I relaxed. The Doctor didn't exactly relax, but he wasn't worried, so that was a good thing.

"Hello, Matt!" he said cheerfully. "How may I help you?"

"Sir... I think you left this on your desk."

He held out his hand to reveal the sonic. For a second, the Doctor just stared at it as if it were glowing hot. Then he took it, slowly and carefully. He examined it for a second, then slipped it into his jacket pocket. "Thank you, Matt. Come inside."

"Umm, sir, I wasn't asking to co-"

"We need your help," I call, motioning to the monitor.

"Oh, Martha, he won't be able to read that-"

Before the Doctor could finish his sentence, Matt stood beside me, staring at the blank screen. "I... don't see what you need help with."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and joined us. "Oh, all right, here." He pressed a button, and the red blobs reappeared. "This graph shows all the Daleks in the area. The redder the blob, the more recent the samples and the more there are." He pressed the button again, and the screen went blank. "This is how many dalek ships the TARDIS is picking up, on the surface or in orbit. Which is to say, none."

Matt stared at the screen for a second. He pressed the button, and the red blobs appeared again. He stared at one hotspot in particular. "If this gwaph is cowwect, and aligned the way I think it is... that's my house."

The Doctor nodded. "As I said, they're after you."

"But why didn't they just kill me? If they know that's where I live, and they want to kill me, then what purpose could they have there besides killing me?"

Something clicked in my head. "The Daleks... what if they didn't want you at all? What if they wanted you to lead them to something?"

The Doctor shook his head. "It couldn't have been us. The TARDIS took us here. It locked onto his DNA. It led us to him."

"Oh, I see a Dalek plot forming here," I realized softly.

The Doctor and Matt looked at me expectantly, and I started. "The TARDIS picks up on a hybrid Timelord, bringing us there. The Daleks have their eye on this hybrid Timelord, knowing we'll find him eventually. But they don't attack at first sight of us. Why? Because they want the TARDIS. So they wait for the hybrid to have a reason to visit us, watch as he follows us, then, at the very right moment, when we're all trapped in here, thinking we're safe and sound..."

The two boys just stared at me. Then Matt pointed out, "If you're wight, we are all twapped in here. Which means-"

"-we're exactly where they want us to be," the Doctor whispered,

The ground shook. The windows on the doors glowed bright blue, and outside I could hear the whir of the Daleks, the mechanical sound of their voices, the buzz of their death rays. "EXTERMINATE!" they chanted, lengthening the word, emphasizing every syllable.

"Well, Matt, I do hope you're in the mood for an adventure," the Doctor said, a maniac light glowing in his eyes.

He frowned, confused. "What?"

And with that, we were off, flying through space and time; Me, Matt and the Doctor.


	5. Chapter 5

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Matt shouted above the groaning noise of the TARDIS.

"You're traveling through time!" I say, grinning excitedly.

For a second he stared at me in disbelief, then his eyes widened. "No..."

The Doctor flung himself around to me. "Martha, the two other members of the band... What are their names?"

"Chris Wolstenholme and Dom Howard," I told him, trying not to let Matt overhear.

"Do you think that these two hotspots could be their houses?" he asked, motioning to the scanner.

My eyes widened. This was already bigger than I had imagined.

"One of them might be Dom, since he was attacked and has seen the Sontarans, but I really don't see why they would need Chris..."

"Are they their houses?!"

"I don't know!"

He grabbed onto a pulleyish thing and pulled, sending the TARDIS spiraling in another direction, presumably towards one of the boys' houses.

Dom had been practicing with his new drum set since he got home from school.

He couldn't do much, since he was still injured and tired quickly, but he loved it. It was like freeing his mind.

But then he heard something from downstairs.

"Mum?" he shouted, opening the door. In response, his mom screamed.

"WHERE IS DOMINIC HOWARD?" something shouted. No... not shouted. Its voice was metallic, like that of a robot. His eyes widened. More aliens.

When his mom stayed silent, the alien machine thing repeated its question. "WHERE IS DOMINIC HOWARD?"

"I... I don't know! I think he's in his room..."

It broke his heart, hearing his mom's voice quaking with fear.

"Please don't hurt him!" she cried, as the thing came into view.

"HE WILL BE TAKEN FOR PROCESSING!" it stated. It seemed emotionless, yet... alive.

Suddenly, a strange groaning noise erupted from his room. He turned around to see a blue box thing materializing in his room. More of the aliens were here, trying to kidnap him.

But when the door opened, it wasn't who he was expecting.

Standing in the doorway was the lady who had saved him that one night. Her brown eyes seemed warm and inviting, yet hardened at the same time. Her face was panic striken, and she held her hand out urgently.

"Get in!" she commanded, and he followed her word.

She grabbed his hand and flung him in. That split second of holding onto her hand seemed to last forever, and when it ended, it lingered. He would have called it beautiful, but then he shook his head of shaggy blond hair. What was he thinking?

Chris was bored out of his mind.

He lay on his bed, basking in boredom. There was nothing to do. His family was mostly downstairs, but he wanted to be alone for the time being.

To tell the truth, he didn't really feel safe. Lately, he had always had the feeling he was being watched.

Suddenly an explosion erupted from downstairs. He burst out of his room, wondering if something had gone seriously wrong making dinner. He stopped halfway down the stairs, staring in terror at the... thing before him.

It was a robot; that much was obvious. It had the general shape of a deformed saltshaker, the front stretching out a bit further than the rest. Three rods emerged from it, two from the front, almost like arms, and one near the top, like a camera. One of its arms appeared to be a suction cup, the other a wire thing that he didn't want to think of what it could do.

"WHERE IS CHISTOPHER WOLSTENHOLME?" it demanded. Its voice was metallic, so metallic he was distracted by it, and it took a few seconds for the words to register.

It wanted him.

"I... I think he's upstairs..." one of his siblings squeaked. For a second he felt betrayal, at their immediate following of the robot's orders, but then he realized he couldn't really blame them; judging by the smoking hole in the wall, at least one of those rods was very dangerous indeed.

The robot proceeded upstairs. He stared in fear, then bolted back to his room, closing and locking the door. He leaned on the back of it, not knowing what was going on. Maybe this was a prank, but it probably wouldn't involve exploding the front door off its hinges if it was.

Suddenly he heard a strange groaning sound erupting from the corner near his closet. He looked over to see some sort of blue box thing emerging from thin air, materializing in his bedroom. When the doors opened, a strange man stood there, wearing a blue suit and a brown jacket.

"Come with me," he said, his brown eyes hard with what seemed like centuries of pain.

He stood up slowly, then heard the thing outside his room shout, "CHRISTOPHER WOLSTENHOLME, YOU WILL COME WITH ME!" and explode his sister's bedroom. Suddenly the reality of the situation struck him. There was a robot outside his door, and it wanted to kidnap him, and would kill anything that got in its way.

He ran to the man, ran into the blue box. What he saw inside, however, made him pause in his fear;

it was bigger on the inside.

-*-*-*-*-Martha-*-*-*-*-

I looked over at the three boys. It was strange, how different their reactions were. Matt was scared, very scared- he knew the Daleks' power, after all- but he hadn't lost his mind; part of him was still thinking, strategizing. Chris was like Matt, but he looked close to insanity. He was the only one here who had never seen an alien before, so it had shaken him the most of all. Dom looked worried, but mostly, he looked slightly swoony, which worried me. I really did not need another Shakespeare.

Though he was kind of cute. I gave him that. But it wasn't cute as in, hot sort of cute, but more as in, young sort of cute. At this age, obviously.

"So, we've saved the boys," I said, grabbing onto the Doctor's arm for balance. "So... what now?"

"I'm scanning for the dalek ships, but I still haven't found any. It's like they're hiding in plain sight. I don't get it. Where are-"

And with that, the TARDIS pulled on us again.

The boys yelled, falling in all directions. I heard Dom yell out in pain, having probably landed on one of his many injuries. "What was that?" I shouted, regaining my balance as I got used to the momentum.

The Doctor was staring at the scanner. "The TARDIS thinks we're still parked. That's bad. Veeeerry bad."

My eyes widened. "Do you think-"

"Yes, Martha. I think they've found us."


	6. Chapter 6

A few minutes later the TARDIS stopped suddenly. Once again, we were thrown to the floor. I noticed Chris help Dom up after he fell on yet another bruise one of the Sontarans had given him. Still shy, Dom merely nodded in reply.

"YOU WILL OPEN THE DOORS!" a Dalek commanded us.

The Doctor tried to take off, but the thing was sealed where it was. "Ah, well," he muttered, walking over and swinging open the doors.

We had landed in- or should I say, the Daleks had taken us to- a giant, circular atrium, expanding upwards to reveal at least a hundred daleks, all watching us with curiosity. The walls had the same look as their metal shielding, mostly rubbed bronzeish with bowl-shaped dots sticking out in rows. Before us stood a glossy black dalek, which looked like Dalek Sec, before he had combined his DNA with that of a human.

Speaking of that particular adventure...

"Doctor," I asked, nudging his arm. "Weren't there only three daleks left?"

"Time travel," he muttered, and I nodded, feeling stupid.

"THE DOCTOR, THE FEMALE, AND THE CHILDREN WILL EXIT THE TARDIS!"

Knowing it was pointless to disobey, we followed the Doctor as he left the TARDIS and stood off to the side. I looked back to see the TARDIS doors closed, and Chris shuffling to catch up.

"YOU WILL COME WITH ME."

We followed the Dalek through bronze tunnels, past empty meeting rooms and crossroads to other tunnels. This part of the ship/base/thing seemed less used, which was probably why it was taking us this way to wherever we were going. I looked back to see the boys in various states of fear. I decided I'd rather look forward, towards the Doctor, who looked a bit more confident.

When we reached a larger questioning area, the Dalek led us in and directed us into specific places to stand. As soon as we had reached them, it pressed a button, and a circular forcefield fell over each of us. It dissapeared after a moment, though when I reached forward, it zapped me, and the forcefield was visible again, if only for half a second.

The dalek turned to Matt, who stood next to me. I looked over, surprised to see a look of curiosity on his face, the worried, calculating face I had seen earlier completely gone. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?" the Dalek questioned him.

He looked forward to the Dalek, startled, and seemed to lose his composure for a second. Then it was back, and he said simply, "I was in the TARDIS, and you found the TARDIS and took it. Now I'm here."

"WHY ARE YOU ON EARTH?" it demanded, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Because I was born here," he stated. "My father was the timelord, my mother a human. He came here, fell in love, they got together and... you know... nine months later..."

The two older boys snickered, and I grinned. The joke may have been dirty, and not the best as well, but it showed either he was calm staring into the face of death or he was a very good actor.

"WHY DID YOUR FATHER COME TO EARTH?" it asked, unable to sense the funny(ish) side.

He leaned back on the forcefield and relaxed. "Because Gallifwey had been destroyed in the Time War, so he came here."

I noticed how Chris and Dom didn't make fun of him for how he pronounced Gallifrey. Well, they didn't know how it was pronounced, I reasoned. Still... it was kind of cute.

"WHY DID HE CHOOSE EARTH?" it pressed.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. Didn't think to ask."

The dalek stared at him for a second, then decided whatever else Matt had to say was unimportant. It moved over to me, and I gulped. "WHY ARE YOU WITH THE DOCTOR?"

I gulped again and answered. "Sontarans attacked the hospital I was working in... The Doctor and I saved everybody... I decided I wanted to see the stars..." I trailed off. Daleks would never understand curiosity, or dreams. It was beyond their emotional capacity to wish.

"DO YOU CARE ABOUT HIM?"

I nodded. "Yes," I said nervously.

"DO YOU THINK THESE EMOTIONS ENHANCE YOU?"

Ugh, daleks. Unable to care, they wanted to know more about it. Maybe they would understand curiosity.

"Yes," I said, nodding again. "Yes, I do."

It examined me for a second, probably wondering how love could be enhancing. It was a good question, but after all, if I had hated him, I would have never been able to see the rest of the universe.

It moved on to Chris, whom it asked, "WHAT IS YOUR RELATION TO MATT?"

Chris was more like me; terrified. "Uh... I dunno... I've seen him at school..."

"HAVE YOU EVER TALKED TO HIM?"

Chris shook his head, obviously trying not to stare at the dalek's blaster. I couldn't blame him.

The dalek paused for a second, then moved on to Dom, who also looked scared. He seemed to remember the Sontarans that had beaten him up, and the memory seemed to solidify his fear of the creature before him.

"HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THIS CREATURE?"

Another dalek in the back of the room I hadn't noticed pressed a button, and a picture of a Sontaran appeared on a holoscreen. Dom took one look at it, and his eyes widened with fear.

"HAVE YOU SEEN IT?"

He nodded and whispered, "yes." Then, louder, he added, "Yes, I have."

"WHERE DID YOU ENCOUNTER IT?"

He was still transfixed by the image of the Sontaran when he responded. "It was in an alleyway... on the way to the park, where I was meeting my friends... behind a restaraunt, I think..."

The Dalek looked at him, examining his cuts and bruises, and seemed to sum up how exactly he had met the Sontarans. "DID THEY INJURE YOU?"

He nodded, tearing his eyes away from the image on the holoscreen.

The dalek examined his injuries once more, then moved over to the Doctor. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?"

The Doctor mimiced Matt's posistion, leaning casually on the forcefield. "Oh, the TARDIS took us here. Such a smart girl. Little did we know Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dom Howard here were being spied on by daleks."

Chris and Dom looked over, confused. Matt spoke for them: "Why do you speak our names as if the whole world knows who we are?"

The Doctor ignored him, listening instead to the Dalek's question. "WHY DID THE TARDIS TAKE YOU HERE?"

He grinned, and motioned to his right. "Locked onto Matt's DNA."

Matt grinned childishly and waved, still leaning casually against the forcefield. I had a feeling he wasn't supposed to do that, but I didn't stop him. If he wanted to defy the Daleks, that was his choice, not mine.

The Dalek looked over at Matt for a second, then remembered Matt was the timelord hybrid. It looked back at the Doctor. "WHAT DO THOSE HUMANS MEAN TO YOU?"

He shrugged. "Not much. If you really want to know what they become, ask Martha."

It looked over at me and asked, "ARE YOU A FAN?"

Its question took me by surprise. Time travel indeed; how else would they have known the three kids' future?

I nodded. "Yes. Yes, I am."

(I was tempted to add something related to being pwoper, but I figured it would give something away and Matt would think I was mocking him.)

It looked back to the Doctor. "IF SHE IS A FAN AND YOU ARE NOT, WHY DO YOU BOTHER TO SAVE THEM?"

He looked over at the boys, giving them a distant look. "It's not just them I'm worried about," he said quietly, "but the rest of their fans. If they die, they never will have-" he paused, not wanting to mention Muse- "never will have done any of that. Imagine all the lives they will never have touched, all the ideas that will never been introduced to the world. It could change the course of music, which, in turn, could change the course of the human race."

If the boys weren't curious before, they certainly were now.

"What is it?" asked Dom, turning to fully face the Doctor, the image of the Sontaran completely gone from his mind.

"What happens?" Chris pressed, eyeing Dom and then Matt, who simply narrowed his eyes in curiosity at the Doctor.

The dalek paused, taking in the Doctor's words. "HOW COULD MUSIC CHANGE THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE?"

"Oh, music is a powerful thing," the Doctor said softly, drifting away as he spoke. "Music speaks with as close to pure emotions and intentions as one can get at this level of technology. Powerful words have their purpose, but sometimes powerful music does more."

I noted how Matt's eyes widened for a second, then went back to scanning the room. It took Chris and Dom a bit longer to put two and two together, but after a few seconds they all looked at each other with raised eyebrows and various levels of fear and excitement.

"THEY ARE MUSICIANS. THEY MUST BE EXTERMINATED!"


	7. Chapter 7

Chaos broke out. The forcefields around the boys were deactivated, and immediately they took to running wildly around the room. The Doctor shouted "WHAT?!" and soniced his and my forcefields, bringing them down as well. The Dalek turned to face Matt, who raised his head and gave it a look of cold defiance.

"Now, I may have just met these guys," he said, stepping forward, "but I'm not just going to let them die."

"WHAT DO THEY MEAN TO YOU?"

At this, he raised his eyebrows. "You see, whether you like it or not, I've got you all figured out." A grin took over his face. "You can't feel emotions; you want to see wether or not they 'enhance' people, hold any sort of meaning. Therefore, you were ordered to take us here to be questioned, by some sort of scientific leader. Now my question is, why did you chose us? If we're weally going to be famous, which I can't say for sure (though it does make sense), why not just wait until then when you can question us about what our music means to us?"

He waited for an answer. When there was none, his grin turned from playful to mischevious. "The answer is, you're afwaid." (Here I grinned at his cute pronounciation again. I noticed Chris and Dom give him weird looks.) "You're afwaid of music, because you don't understand its power. Unable to understand emotion, you don't know what it's like to be able to put in a CD and feel someone else's thoughts and feelings. You can be told them, but no matter how hard you twy, you just can't. It's beyond you. You want to know if it enhances us, because you're scared of it. Because if it enhances us, we could gwow stwonger than you."

"Dude, can you please talk normally?" Dom said. Matt, in response, gave him a nice, cold glare.

"I pwonounce words like this," he grumbled, "wether you like it or not."

After a few moments' silence, he continued. "Continuing with our owiginal discussion. You know that while you're stwong, you're weak. Unable to weason, your only option is to fight. And you're vewy good at fighting, I'll give you that. You're physically invincible, armed with a blaster that can exterminate almost any living being, a suction cup that can suck out a being's bwain waves, and spaceships stwong enough to destwoy even Gallifwey. But you can't change your mind. You can't feel emotiones like sadness, or pity, or love, maybe." He paused, to let his words sink in. "And how do those help you? They give you an edge, a need for wevenge. For example, when you love someone, and they die, you feel sad. This sadness often amounts to anger at whatever killed them, and at least part of you wants them to die, even if you never make it happen." He grinned. "That, Mr. Dalek, is how emotions enhance the beings they affect."

The dalek examined him, and seemed to decide his argument was legit.

"YOU ARE INTELLIGENT."

Matt bowed his head and grinned. "Thank you."

"YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

His smile dissapeared immediately. "Wait, wha-?"

"EXTERMINA-"

"DALEK JAX, I HAVE THE FOURTH HUMAN!"

The black dalek turned to see a dull silver one leading a fourth child into the questioning room. He looked scared. Suddenly I felt bad. There was a fourth member, though he was rarely mentioned, and I had forgotten his name-

"Morgan!"

The kid being led by the Dalek turned and saw Chris. "Chris!" he shouted, running over.

"THE HUMANS WILL BE SILENT!" the silver dalek commanded.

Morgan slowed down, unsure of where to go. I was about to motion to him to get over, but Chris did before I could raise my arm. It was just as well, really; he didn't know me, but he and Chris seemed to be friends.

The two daleks left to talk about whatever plan they had to do with us. As they left, the room fell into a stunned silence.

"What's going on..." Morgan moaned.

After a speedy explanation of what was happening (by Dom) and a few minutes of silence, the silver dalek returned, the black one nowhere to be seen. "YOU WILL COME WITH ME."

We followed it into a wide elevator, with dull silver walls the same color as the dalek's armour... stuff. It took us up a few levels, then the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. It led us out into a copper tunnel, turned left, and stopped at what looked creepishly like a jail cell.

"YOU WILL WAIT IN HERE."

We followed the Doctor into the room and sat down on two benches attached to the walls. It was small, and I ended up squished between a very scared Dom and a very annoyed Doctor. I looked across and saw Matt back to examining his surroundings, plotting something or another. To his left sat Chris and Morgan, whispering to each other.

I looked down at Dom to see him resting his face in his hands. I felt bad for him; he had been through a lot in the last few days. I put a hand on his back, trying to comfort him.

Upon feeling this, he looked up at me in surprise. For a second he seemed lost in my eyes, and I gave him a pitying look. After a few seconds he looked back down, his face as red as a strawberry.

Suddenly the Doctor stood up. "I think I have a plan."

Matt looked up at him in confusion. "But... Doctor... they'll be coming back fairly soon."

He nodded. "So let's get moving."

I stood up and stretched, following the Doctor. Upon me standing up, Dom followed, looking up at us in expectation.

"Come on, then," the Doctor said, eyeing the other three boys impatiently.

Chris shook his head. "No, they'll be back soon. We can't leave now."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and walked over to the doorway. "If we leave right now, we have a chance of escaping without them noticing. One more minute of hesitation, and they'll be back, and they'll see us."

"Trust me, we've done this sort of thing before," I added approvingly.

The boys hesitated for a second, then Matt stood up. "He's wight. We need to leave wight now, or they'll find us."

Chris and Morgan exchanged reluctant looks, then rose to their feet. "Fine then. So when do we leave?"

The Doctor looked out into the hallway, scanning the area. Carefully he took one step, then another, then another and another until he stood in the middle of the hall. He took out the sonic and pressed a button. About twenty feet away, there was a zap and something showered sparks.

"Well, they'll definitely be coming now," he mumbled. "I should not have done that." Looking back at Chris, he added, "To answer your question, if you want to get out alive, I'd say..."

A whistling alarm went off near where whatever had sparked was. When he heard it, his face lit up in his cute, mad grin. "...now."

"RUN!" I shouted, following the Doctor down the hallway. As scared as I was, the adrenaline felt suprisingly good, flowing through my veins. Chatting with Dom Howard was not a normal adventure with the Doctor. It felt wrong. Running from Daleks? That definitely was.

As soon as my feet hit the floor, I heard the whirring of daleks behind us. I noticed Dom gasping for breath, not fully healed. "Come on, you don't want to die, do you?" I grumbled, yanking on his arm, pulling him to make him go faster.

"YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" I heard one of the daleks shout, firing at us. I heard screams, but they weren't screams of pain, only of terror. I saw the ray strike the wall, leaving a black scorch spot where it hit.

Suddenly Matt took off, a skinny, black-haired bullet. He shot ahead of us, slowing down when he reached the Doctor, who gave him a look of surprise. He answered with a maniac grin, much like the Doctor's own.

After a few minutes of running, I realized we were in bad shape. Chris and Morgan were gasping for breath, and Dom looked near collapsing. I pulled him forward, noticing tears in his eyes. If we had to keep running like this, who knows what it would do to him. I myself was getting seriously tired of running from hallway to hallway to yet another silver hallway.

Then there was Matt and the Doctor, near the very front of the group. The Doctor, being over nine hundred years old, was starting to get a little tired, but Matt looked, for the first time I had ever seen him... alive. His eyes were filled with a new sort of energy, and, despite the fact that daleks were trying to kill us, a broad smile had blossomed on his face.

He looked back to see how we were doing, and almost immediately his eyes fell on Dom. His smile dissapeared, and he bolted back to us, scooped up Dom, and continued at a more... human (but still fast) pace.

"EXTERMINATE!" one of the Daleks shouted, shooting at Matt.

"Gaaah!" he shouted, dodging the beam. It narrowly missed the Doctor, who looked back in suprise.

"You are enjoying this way too much, Matt," he said, obviously trying not to grin himself.

He smiled mischieveously. "It's like a life-or-death game of tag in a big, metal playground."

We turned a corner and arrived at a huge, metal door. Chris and Morgan ran in, panting. I noticed a burn mark on the side of Morgan's T-shirt. His eyes were filled with terror.

"I was that far away from being killed!" he panted, holding up his fingers about three inches apart.

"Welcome to my world!" the Doctor said, grinning.

Soon the daleks entered the area, trapping us against the door. There were six of them. I tried to convince myself that it was just a coincidence, and there wasn't one for each of us.

"YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" a copper dalek in the front stated.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Matt burst into uncontrollable laughter. This wasn't just the blissful, this-is-epic kind of thing from before, this was bending-over-can't-stop-laughing kind of laughing. And indeed, it looked like he couldn't stop.

Unable to tell what he was laughing at, the rest of us simply stared at him. When he paused to look up at our confused faces, he burst into laughter again, bending down, unable to stand from the shaking.

After staring at him for a few seconds, the Dalek asked, "WHAT DO YOU FIND FUNNY?"

He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. After a few seconds, he started speaking. "It's... it's just... just that..." He burst into laughter again, unable to even say whatever was so funny.

After calming himself down again, he was finally able to speak. "It's just... you guys were trying to kill us... and it's just so iwonic..." He giggled this time. Matt Bellamy. Age 15. _Giggling_. "At the face of death, I felt alive."

Following this statement was a long, awkward silence. The rest of us had been scared, to some level. And here Matt was, cracking up and saying it was epic.

"I DO NOT GET IT."

"Of course you don't, you can't enjoy. It's beyond you. But still..." He giggled again. It was seriously creepy. "It was like, I had all this energy bottled up inside me, fwom a whole lifetime of acting human, and I finally got to welease it. It was... it was awesome."

After a few minutes of silence, the dalek seemed to decide Matt was officially crazy and move on. "THE DOCTOR HAS DESTROYED DALEK PROPERTY. HE WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

"Oh, I wouldn't count on it," the Doctor mused, sonicing the door. On command, it opened, and we bolted through.

"EXTERMINATE!" one of the the other daleks shouted.

"Oh, I don't think so," the Doctor teased, turning around and sonicing the door again. It closed, coming close to crushing the dalek in front, but (unfortunately) it barely missed.

We turned around to run, but were met by a huge atrium. It was dark, and filled with holoscreens. Mostly, though, it was filled with daleks, each and every one staring curiously at us.

By the way, that remark I made earlier about daleks not understanding curiosity? I fully take it back now. Judging by the fact that at least a hudred of them were staring at us, they had to be curious to some extent, even if not as much as humans.

"THE DOCTOR, THE FEMALE, AND THE MUSICIANS HAVE INVADED!" one of the nearer ones shouted.

"Oh, I wouldn't say invaded," the Doctor said quietly, examining the control room.

"Nice contwols, by the way," Matt complimented. He nodded in approval. "Impwessive."

The Doctor looked down at him, then smiled. "Glad you're enjoying it, they're probably going to try to kill us again soon..."

"YOU WERE TO BE TAKEN TO TESTING!" another dalek added, coming closer for a better look.

"Testing?" Morgan blurted, looking worried.

"Probably to see what emotions feel like," I muttered, and he nodded.

"Well, that didn't happen, so what now?" the Doctor called, looking up at them mischeviously. "I have a feeling you're going to try to exterminate me, so that's settled. But what about Martha? Or Chris, Morgan, Dom and Matt? Are you going to capture them and test on them?"

"PRECISELY," one of the other daleks confirmed, solidifying the fear that had already been growing inside.

"But my question is, of all bands, why-" he stopped. "Why theirs? What is it about these four boys that scares you so?"

"THEY ARE POWERFUL."

"What do you mean, we're powerful?" Chris called, momentarily forgetting his fear in his curiosity.

It paused for a second, deciding whether or not to tell him. Then it said simply, "THE FUTURE MUST BE LEFT UNTOLD."

The Doctor grinned. "You're a smarter one. Tell me, what's your name?"

"I AM DALEK QOM."

"Right then, Dalek Qom. I might just spare you."

"SPARE ME FROM WHAT?"

"Oh, this."

And with that, he pointed the sonic upwards and pressed a button.

At first the effect was nonexistent. Long enough, in fact, that I began to wonder if he had actually done anything.

Until sparks exploded from the ceiling, and all the power went out.


	8. Chapter 8

For a few seconds the room was dark, causing Chris, Dom and Morgan to scream and, judging by the sound of footsteps and random objects falling to the floor, run around in circles. I heard Matt yell, "Gaah!" and grab my arm at random. The Doctor, however, seemed to stand still (though knowing him, he was probably grinning an evil grin nobody could see.)

After a few seconds, dim red-orange lights lit up around the atrium, casting an eerie glow on the controls below it. The Daleks began to hover around in circles, trying to figure out what had just happened. Upon waiting a few seconds, they seemed to realized this was the Doctor's fault, and turned to face him.

His smile dissapeared. "Guys, run."

"What?" Matt hissed, staring up at him like he was mad (which he probably was.)

"Basically, I've cut the wires flowing from their solar panels. They've stored enough emergency power to run basic systems, such as the orange lights and doors, for about eight minutes. I'll deal with the Daleks; you guys get out of here."

Chris, Dom, Morgan and Matt looked at each other for a second, then turned to face the Doctor. "No."

The Doctor stared at them as if they were crazy. "What? Why?"

"Because you've helped us, and we're not just going to leave you behind to die," Dom said, his voice shaky.

"Oh, don't worry about me," the Doctor grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"THE DOCTOR AND THE HUMANS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" Dalek Qom commanded, still hovering where he had been before the Doctor cut the power.

"Okay, nevermind, scratch that," he said quietly. "EVERYONE, RUN!"

He soniced the door, and we bolted out, faster than the six daleks still waiting outside could register. The Doctor and Matt bolted to the front of the group, once again the fastest of any of us. This time the hallways were harder to see, lit only by a few red-orange lights here and there, and the usual death ray being shot at one of us.

"EXTERMINATE!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dalek aim its blaster at Dom, the weakest of the group. Quickly I grabbed him and jolted him to the side, saving his life as the blue beam shot exactly where he had been running. He looked up at me, half dreamy, half pained.

"You almost got killed," I told him, pushing him forward. "You can push yourself, Dom. Once we get back to the TARDIS, we'll be safe."

"And when's that?"

"I have no idea," I said truthfully. "I just hope Matt and the Doctor have some idea where they're going."

"Umm... Doctor?" I heard Morgan call out, still shy with the older man.

"Not now, Morgan," he said sharply, concentrating on finding the TARDIS.

"What happens after those eight minutes?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes and pushed forward, motioning for us to catch up. "The power goes out, the entire station transcends into chaos."

"And?" I called, still holding Dom's hand.

He kept his face forward when he spoke. "The whole station gets transported through time. Probably minus the TARDIS."

My eyes widened with fear. "So basically, we have eight minutes to find the TARDIS before we're trapped with a bunch of daleks for the rest of our lives-"

"Which would probably be about ten seconds," Chris added, pushing forwards to catch up. "So basically-"

"We should weally get going, because thwee minutes have alweady passed," Matt said, actually scared now, for the first time since Dalek Jax had threatened to exterminate him, Chris and Dom. (That was the weird part. When it was just him, he had simply been confused. Exterminate all of us and then he wanted to survive.)

"HOLY FIREY, FLYING COWS!" Morgan shouted, which, had we not been being chased by daleks, probably would have earned him some stares.

"Doctor, do you have any idea where you're going?" I asked, exasperated and tired from running.

"Vaguely," he called back, actually worried at the thought of losing his beloved TARDIS.

A few minutes of running later, we reached the central atrium. The area had been deserted except for a single dull copper Dalek, left to keep an eye on the TARDIS, which stood in the very center of the room. Illuminated by the dull, red-orange emergency lights, such a simple object appeared dark and alluring, the red glow of the lights contrasting with the blue wood of the box, casting deep, secretive shadows on the doors. The windows were almost like square white eyes, staring almost evilly down from its pedestal onto us and the Daleks sent to kill us.

The Doctor ran up to it, grinning, obviously unaware of the image in my mind. "There you are, sexy!" he said, pulling out the sonic and attempting to open the doors.

"THE TARDIS HAS BEEN DEADLOCKED!" the copper dalek reported, its eyestalk turning to face the Doctor.

"Oh, you're kidding me," he said, turning to face the Dalek. "So what do you plan to do with it?"

"IT WILL BE DESTROYED," it stated, the lights on the top of its... armor stuff flashing white as it spoke.

The Doctor gave it a look of angry confusion, and emitted a sharp, "What? Why?"

"BECAUSE IT IS DANGEROUS."

The Doctor gave it a sort of, "I f**king hate you right now, but since Daleks don't have emotions you probably wouldn't understand" look and turned away. "What exactly makes a TARDIS dangerous?"

"IT PLAYS MUSIC."

"Oh, you're kidding me," he said, rolling his eyes. He stuck his hands in his back pockets and leaned against the doors. "If you really want to destroy everything in the universe that plays music, you've got a long way to go. You've got record players, 8-tracks, CD players, tape players, plus the CDs, records and tapes themselves. Then, in the near future, you've got MP3 players, iPods, and pretty much every computer, tablet and cell phone on this planet. And that's just Earth. Plus, you've got all the musical instruments used to make that music as well. Destroying my TARDIS isn't going to destroy music."

"THEN WE WILL."

The Doctor's jaw dropped, and he looked around worriedly. "Thats... that's not what I meant by that at all-"

"YOU ARE NOT DESTWOYING MY GUITAR!" Matt shouted, his silver-blue eyes flaring with anger.

"THE TIMELORD HYBRID CANNOT SPEAK PROPERLY," one of the daleks from behind us observed.

He turned quickly to face the other dalek, glaring daggers at the creature. "Oi, I can talk more pwoperly than any of you things can! At least I have volume contwol!"

"He's got a point, y'know," the Doctor mused, still leaning against the TARDIS. "Have you ever tried speaking at a normal volume? You don't have to yell so much..."

"WE ARE SPEAKING NORMALLY!" the copper dalek said, sounding almost annoyed.

"Guys..."

"Normally for a giant wobot saltshaker," Matt muttered, pissed off. Next to him, Chris and Dom snorted and giggled.

Dominic Howard. _Giggling._

I would never get used to this.

"Guys..."

"WE ARE NOT ROBOTIC SALTSHAKERS!" one of the other daleks informed, inching forward.

"Tell that to your local cosplay company," Dom joked, causing Matt and Chris to burst into laughter.

"Guys!"

We turned to look at a very worried Morgan, who pointed to his watch. "I think I have an idea how to get into the TARDIS."

"You can't, it's deadlocked," the Doctor said sadly, looking distant. You could see it in his eyes. This was the Doctor, the last of his race, who never gave in... giving up.

He knew it. The reign of the Timelords had finally come to an end.

"Doctor, we still have a minute and thirty seconds," Morgan pointed out, holding up his watch. "You can still come up with something."

"You can't break a seal if it's deadlocked," he said softly. I noticed his eyes shining with tears. He was finally accepting defeat.

"Doctor, you never give up!" I said, stepping up and touching his shoulder. "You can't just give in now! These boys have futures, great futures-"

"Time can be rewritten, Martha," he whispered shakily.

For a second the room was silent, as they realized what they were seeing. The Doctor, the last of a race whose reign once stretched across the whole of space and time, was finally giving up. After nine hundred years of running from death, he was welcoming it with open, if still reluctant, arms. He was admitting defeat.

"If you would just move, could I at least put my theory to the test?!" Morgan called, exasperated.

I looked at the Doctor, who was gazing sadly down at Morgan. Then, figuring there was no harm in trying, he stepped away from the TARDIS, reluctant to let it go.

All eyes, human, timelord, hybrid and Dalek were on Morgan as he walked up to the TARDIS. His eyes were filled with determination that whatever plan he had would work. A few feet away from the doors, he stopped, and stared at the doors, still ominous looking from the red lights. All attention fell to his hand as he raised his arm, parallel to the ground, and held his fingers out to the blue box. Then, still looking directly forward towards the TARDIS, he simply snapped his fingers.

A split second later, to everyone's suprise, the doors opened, slowly, as if someone had tapped ever so lightly on them.

For a few seconds, the room was still, in stunned silence, except for the buzzing of the emergency lights and the hum of the TARDIS interior.

Then the lights came back on, and alarms began blaring. "Guys, we have ten seconds to get out of here," Matt reported, looking at a silver watch I had never noticed before.

"IN! EVERYONE IN!" the Doctor shouted, grabbing me and Dom and pulling us in. Chris, Matt and Morgan soon followed, Morgan slamming the doors and leaning on them.

"EXTERMINATE!" the Daleks began chanting, shooting death rays at the TARDIS exterior. The Doctor tried to pull the lever, but the seal was still on firmly, and he couldn't take off. "Come on, you big, old, sexy thing!" he groaned, trying to egg the TARDIS on, but, as much as he tried, she/it stayed put, still held by the dalek's grip.

"Try in five seconds," Morgan said, looking at his own watch.

The Doctor waited impatiently for about four seconds, then yelled, "COME ON, YOU!" and pulled on the lever with all his might.

For a second, we stayed still. Then we shot off, hurling ourselves through space and time.

For a long time, we were all silent, still in shock from our experience with the Daleks. Dom sat down, trying to ignore the pain pretty much everywhere in his body. Matt helped him, setting him down as softly as he could on the floor (which, by the sound of Dom's painful yelp, wasn't the softest in the world.) Chris stood stunned near the back wall, and Morgan rested his head on the console. Even the Doctor and I stood still, not wanting to ruin the blissfull silence.

Then Matt decided to point out the obvious: "We just fought off_ aliens_."

Suddenly the boys burst into laughter, finally breaking down from the nerves. The Doctor and I just grinned, and looked at each other. We had done this thing many times before, but never with four teenage boys to help. Something about the exhausted smiles on their faces warmed my heart. They had just experienced as much adventure as a lot of people experience in a lifetime, probably in under a few hours. And they were obviously loving it.

"We should get them home soon," the Doctor said, gazing distantly at the boys.

Then I realized: as much as he was happy they had enjoyed their little adventure, he had been like this once, too. He had had friends, and he had loved adventure as much as they did.

"There's one more thing I think they might enjoy," I said quietly, hoping they wouldn't hear.

"And what would that be?" he asked, looking at me curiously.

I leaned over and whispered something in his ear. He looked at me for a second, almost sadly, then smiled. "Indeed."

He pulled on the lever and we were off again, this time with a direction.

A few minutes later, the TARDIS stopped, and the Doctor stood by the door.

"Are we home?" Chris asked, looking at him expectantly.

"Not quite, but almost," he said mysteriously.

He pushed the door open, and outside stood a supernova.

I watched, smiling warmly, as the boys stood up slowly and walked to the doorway, as if afraid it would strike them with some unimaginable power. After helping Dom up, I noticed Matt help him over to the doorway, his eyes filled with magic and wonder.

"Where are we?" Morgan whispered, joining the other three boys as they gazed dreamily out the doorway.

"The other side of the universe," the Doctor said mystically. "In the Firebird Cascade, near-"

"the galaxy of Klosterbowous," Matt finished distantly.

Matt fell silent for a second, gazing dreamily at the starlight. "Are there any left, Doctor?" he asked, turning his head towards the Doctor.

The Doctor, in response, smiled sadly. "There's me, and there's you, and maybe your father... but other than that, there's none. We're the last."

"But Doctor... I'm not fully Timelord. How do I count?"

His face softened a bit. Suddenly he saw Matt's side, a strange, in-between state, where nothing felt right. His heart was attached to Earth, because it was his home, but his genes to the stars, because it could have been his destiny.

The Doctor kneeled down a bit to look Matt more closely in the eyes. "You are an incredible being, Matt," he said softly. "I know you're a hybrid of two beings, and sometimes that makes you feel like this messed-up, in-between hunk of flesh that was never supposed to exist, but in reality, if you're a mistake, you're the kind that turns out to be for the better. Like gunpowder and rubber, two things created on accident that revolutionized the modern world. You have two ways of looking at the world; your logical side, the Timelord side, and the emotional side, the human side. Sometimes it may seem like you're worthless, but you're one of the most amazing creatures in the universe, and don't you ever forget it."

He nodded, his eyes locked back on the supernova. I noticed they were shining with tears of happiness and awe.

It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, the reflection of the other side of the universe in fourteen year old Matt Bellamy's eyes.


	9. Epilogue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TWENTY YEARS LATER (from their perspective)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THREE YEARS LATER (from mine)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you sure they'll be there?" I asked the Doctor, still shy about meeting them again.

We had just defeated the Daleks again, with the help of Torchwood, UNIT, Sarah Jane and her son, K9, Rose, and Donna. In celebration, we had thrown a party in the TARDIS as we towed the Earth back to its normal position (the Daleks had taken it elsewhere in an attempt to destroy space and time.) Now the TARDIS was parked somewhere in the wilderness of San Francisco, in the year 2012. According to the Doctor, he had told Matt to bring the band to this exact spot at this exact point in time, but I had my doubts. Maybe he had forgotten; it had been twenty years, after all.

"I'm sure," he said, nodding towards the door, urging me to open it.

Shyly, I placed my hand on the handle and pushed, doubtful I would see them. But sure enough, outside stood a single black trailer, and off to the side stood three silhouetted figures; two standing, looking out over the ocean, one sitting, looking up into the stars.

For a second I stood back, shy. The four boys I had known... they were so much younger. Now they had grown, and compared to them, I had stayed almost the same. What would they say, when they had made such great progress over the past twenty years, and I had done close to nothing?

"Go on then," the Doctor muttered, nudging me forward.

I stepped through the trees, the cold San Francisco wind whipping through my hair. I kept walking, afraid to make a sound, until I was around ten feet away from them. I took a deep breath, unaudible though the wind, and said simply, "Uh... hi..."

They turned around to see who it was, and when they saw me, their faces lit up like candles. "Martha!"

Before I could respond, Matt was hugging me, squeezing me tightly, cold from being outside for however long he had been here. "I haven't seen you in years!"

"You haven't changed at all!" Chris exclaimed, hugging me as soon as Matt found the strength to let go again. "What are you?"

"Time travel," I choked, trapped in Chris's supertight megahug.

"Sorry," he muttered, letting go of me. I gasped for breath, grinning.

"So when are you going to introduce me to your boyfriends?"

I turned around to see a flirty-looking Jack Harness leaning casually against a pine tree, the Doctor casting him dirty looks. "Jack, no."

"Oh my gosh..." I covered my face in my hands, blushing. "I'm so rude..."

Jack grinned. "I'm actually quite a fan myself, I just wanted to know who these 'old friends' of yours were." Then suddenly his face turned jealous. "You fought daleks with Matthew Bellamy?!"

"Jack, no."

He glared at the Doctor. "What, so now I'm not allowed to be surprised?"

The Doctor raised his head and eyed him suspiciously. "For you, that's flirting."

"With who, Matt?"

Hearing this, Matt gave me a quizzical look, like I have fanboys? I grinned at him laughingly.

"You don't know Jack," I told him jokingly. "He flirts with everyone."

"I am not flirting with him!"

The boys' banter fell into the background as my eyes fell on Dom. He was the only member of the band who didn't seem especially joyful to see me, even though he had been rather attatched to me all those years ago. Rather than smiling, he gazed distantly out into the fog that cloaked the northern tip of the Peninsula, the same color as his own silver eyes.

"Dom?"

He looked up at me, startled out of his daydreaming state. "Yeah?"

"I was just... making sure you were okay," I said awkwardly.

"Oh."

His sight seemed to fade into the distance a bit, and he looked off to the side. "I'm... I guess I'm fine."

Sensing there was more, I slid down the trunk next to him. "What is it, Dom?"

He pulled his right knee closer to him and rested his arm on it. At first glance it may have looked casual, but to me it was a gesture of loneliness. He wanted to curl up and hide from the world, but at the same time he wanted to look strong.

When he spoke, he simply pointed out the fact that Matt had a few minutes ago: "You're younger than me. How did that happen?"

"It's the way it's supposed to be," I said simply, noticing the sadness in his voice.

He nodded, looking back out at the fog. "If you say so."

We sat in silence for a second, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

"What's wrong, Dom?" I said simply, finally breaking the silence.

"It's just..." He fumbled a little, shifting his weight. "I think you were the first girl I ever truly loved, and then I got over you, and now..."

He faded away, knowing he didn't have to say what came next.

Suddenly everything felt wrong. I didn't know what to say. How do you tell someone you don't love them without breaking their heart? I didn't have much experience in this type of situation, and the closest I'd ever gotten, it was the other way around.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "That's okay, Dom. That's not a bad thing."

He shook his head. "But in a way... it is. I've gotten on without you. I have a girlfriend now and everything. You say it's not bad, but in reality... will I ever see you again? Or will you dissapear from my life again, truly forever this time?"

With these words came the realization that I knew, to some level, how he felt. I had loved someone, long ago, and he never knew. Then he left, and, as time passed, I lost hope that I would ever see him again.

But then, just as I had finally let go, he returned to me. And I had realized that, to some level, I still loved him, my lonely angel... But it was too late now. I had moved past that, convinced myself he was just another star in the night sky.

But he wasn't.

I wanted to tell Dom that it would be okay, that there was always the chance, even the smallest chance, that we might see each other again over time. I wanted to tell him it was okay if he loved me, that it wouldn't make a difference on the big scale. But I knew it would be a lie; life wasn't a fairytale, after all. Even happy endings had their prices. Either way, it wouldn't help his mood.

"If it helps, I know how you feel, and I don't want to hurt you, and... I'm sorry, Dom."

"Oh, don't be sorry," he scoffed, resting his forehead in his palm. His voice was shaky, as if afraid it would lose its balance and topple off the top of the world. "It's my fault I'm in love with you, and not really anyone's fault you're so beautiful..."

A single tear fell from one of his eyes. He blinked, trying to hide the fact that more were on the verge of following the last one, barely held by surface tension.

Maybe he hadn't grown as much as I thought he had. Maybe on the inside, he was just as young as he had been when I met him, twenty years ago. Maybe he was even younger, lost and afraid, new and confused. A seven year old in a thirty seven year old's body.

I wrapped my arms around him, unable to take it anymore. I had no idea he could be so emotional. "I'm so sorry..."

For a second he paused, surprised, his arms unsure where to go. Then, slowly, he hugged me back, still shy around me.

"Does this mean you love me, then?" he whispered softly.

"I don't love you," I answered, still holding him tight. "But you're one of the best friends I've ever had, and I hate seeing you so heartbroken."

He nodded, and I felt another tear escape from his silver eyes. "Got it."

After a little while of hugging, I managed to untangle myself from Dom's arms without making him cry again. By now, Sarah Jane, her son, Donna, Rose, and K9 had followed Jack to the clearing and were chatting (or, in Jack's case, possibly flirting) with Matt and Chris. Rose, being a Matt fangirl, was going crazy, and giggling (which was actually kind of creepy, considering the only times I had ever seen her, we had been fighting aliens of some sort.) Donna, having never heard of Muse, was chatting casually with Chris and Sarah about the horrors of traveling in a TARDIS, especially with the Doctor.

"And then we went to Pompeii! The day before it erupted!" she was saying, to gasps and wide eyes. "And the Doctor fought off giant lava creatures with a water gun!"

At this, the three burst into laughter. The Doctor, hearing his name, looked over from the tree he was leaning on and grinned.

Sarah's son, Matt, Jack, and K9 were off near the cliff, also talking about previous experiences in the TARDIS and with aliens in general. Apparently, Matt had been in contact with aliens a lot since I last saw him, based on what he was telling the others about a concert in Japan a few years back:

"-there were cat people! Weal, living cat people at our gig in Tokyo! When they asked us for autogwaphs, I got a picture with them for pwoof. They were the sweetest things, too... Said they were fwom a planet called Kehawa, vacationing on Earth for a few of their Kehawan months... During planning, they had noticed we were doing a gig there, and went out of their way to see us! Isn't that amazing?"

The Doctor glanced at the picture on his phone and smiled. "Oh, Keharans. They're a lot like humans, too. I'm not surprised they like human bands, but I've never heard of them going to human concerts..."

"That's pretty awesome, though, that you have fans all over the universe," Luke said, grinning.

"Eh, I wouldn't say the entire universe, Kehara is relatively close," the Doctor pointed out. "The galaxy, though, yeah. But still, quite an accomplishment. Well done."

Matt bowed his head. "Aww, thanks. Not weally that big of a deal..." Then his face turned curious. "I wonder how they got a copy of our music in the first place...?"

The Doctor shifted his weight awkwardly. "Umm... good question..."

Jack noticed the Doctor's sudden mood change, and covered up for him. "I bet some other Keharans brought it back from a different vacation. An Earth souvenir. Imagine that."

Dom ran over, laughing. "I heard what you were saying about the cat people. You left out the fact that they were, as it turns out, total fangirls for me."

Matt blushed and turned away from him. "It wasn't that important of a detail..."

"Yeah, but why did you leave it out?"

He paused for a second, then turned around and stared blankly at a playful Dom, who grinned goofily back at him. "What are you twying to imply?"

They burst into laughter as Matt tried as hard as he could not to look embarassed at what Dom was obviously hinting. This was more like Dom; not emo and heartbroken, but acting like a twelve-year-old around his friends. I smiled. All was not lost.

I walked over to the Doctor's tree and leaned against it, the fibery bark of the sequoias rubbing against my shirt and hair. "They are such boys."

To my surprise, rather than being insulted, the Doctor smiled. "Of course they are. They've known each other for twenty years now. And they're human as well."

"Are you calling us idiots?"

He grinned playfully. "Nah, not really... just... happier."

It was then that I noticed exactly how awkward the Doctor felt here, yet exactly how at home. Here he was, taking a bunch of humans to visit a human band. He knew he could never be human, and was jealous of us. He wanted to join our society more than anything, to leave Gallifrey and the Timelords behind.

But at the same time, Matt was half Timelord. He had spent his school years hiding his intelligence, agility, strength, and two hearts, and even now he was forced sometimes to keep parts of him secret, knowing no one could ever know (and they probably wouldn't believe it anyways.) He wasn't afraid of crowds, but still, in a way, he was forced to hide. He was, in many ways, just like the Doctor.

Of course, there was still the other half of his DNA, but the Doctor could let that slide. He was obviously just yearning for someone who understood him.

After a few hours of chatter, the boys had to go off in order to be in Seattle within a week. Upon this announcement was dissapointment, but after lots of hugs and goodbyes, they headed back to their trailer for some sleep before a day of driving (and probably taking lots of touristy photos around the Bay Area, as well). But as we left, I heard one of them follow us back to the TARDIS.

I looked back before getting in and saw a shadow peeping behind a tree. I turned around and gave whoever it was- probably Matt- a quick salute. _To Gallifrey._

In the darkness, I barely saw him salute back. _To Earth._

Matt stood, peering out behind a tree, as he watched the group pile into the TARDIS. He was glad for them, that they had all seen the far corners of the universe at one time or another. But also, he was jealous, and sad a bit, too. He had seen the stars once in his life, and would love to see them again.

But more than anything, Matt wanted to see Gallifrey. Not even to interact; that would be nice, but he just wanted to see it, feel it, to see if he felt at home there. Because those four minutes he had spent staring at the stars were the first time in his life he had ever felt at home. There were similar moments here on Earth, like the way his fingers felt right on a piano, or his mind was at peace at nighttime, in the moonlight. But it wasn't the same.

He just wanted to go home.

At the last second, before everyone was in, Martha turned around and spotted him. Whether or not she recognized him he couldn't be sure, but she definitely saw him. He knew for sure when she turned around and raised her fingers to her forehead in salute, almost a thank-you.

Grinning, he saluted back to her._ Thanks for everything._

She smiled, and walked in, closing the door behind her. The clearing was suddenly dark except for the light of the nearly full moon. Nothing could be heard except for the distant murmurs of Chris and Dom in the trailer and the Pacific wind howling through the forest, causing the gigantic redwoods to sway.

Then, suddenly, the light on the top of the TARDIS turned on, and the near silence was eaten by the groan of the alien device as it faded from view, in, then out, over and over again until it was completely gone, leaving nothing but echoes and a small square of twigless dirt sitting on the ground.

He remembered the last time he had seen such a sight, after the Doctor and Martha had dropped him off at his grandmother's house, twenty years ago. The Doctor had shook his hand and thanked him for his help with the Daleks, staying at the console. But Martha had given him this promising smile and said simply, "Good luck, Matthew Bellamy."

Then she had closed the doors, and the TARDIS had dematerialized, hurling itself back into the Time Vortex, leaving him standing there in a cold, soothing rain.

Matt shook himself back to reality, realizing he had never told them how he truly felt about space. It was his home. He loved Earth, having grown up there and lived there all his life, but his heart was with the stars, floating in the vast canyon of the universe, unbound by gravity. They had shown him that.

"Thank you," he told them, his voice breaking the silence of the empty forest.

And with that, he tore himself from the beauty of nature and headed back to the trailer. But still he paused before getting in and gazed longingly into the night sky.

_Maybe someday, Matthew,_ he told himself, blinking up at the cavernous void of space. _Maybe someday._


End file.
